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Gaia People

Ralf Kohley

European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC)

Ralf Kohley joined ESA in 2007 as Calibration Scientist at the Gaia Science Operation Centre. He is now leading the SOC efforts on calibration through a small dedicated team responsible for payload aspects relevant for calibration and operations.

Ralf studied Physics and Astronomy at the University of Bonn, where he obtained his Ph.D in 1998. For many years he has been extensively working in scientific instrumentation for astronomy, especially in the field of optical detector systems, where he gained expertise in CCD operation and calibration. Before joining ESA he worked as detector engineer within the instrumentation group at the GTC, the Spanish 10m telescope project, designing, building and testing CCD cameras for scientific instrumentation, acquisition and guiding, and adaptive optics. His scientific interest lies in novel instrumentation, observing techniques and semiconductor detector systems for the optical and infrared wavelength bands.